Of compromises and aversions: political meanings of the university in prison

Abstract

In this paper I explore how the relationships that involve university agents with prison workers and people deprived of liberty are crossed by moral connotations. Facing this question necessarily entails the exercise of inquiring about the place that moral boundaries occupy obstructing/enabling particular courses of action. What do we do when we do university outreach in prisons? Who “deserves” to receive higher education in these contexts and how does “vulnerability” operate when we think about the administration of punishment on certain subjects? What does it mean to have “commitment” in these territories and what does it mean to feel “aversion” towards certain detainees? And if the “aversion” is directed towards workers of the Penitentiary Service, what substance nourishes the “commitment” to human rights that the university assumes? I am interested in investigating the asymmetries generated around “commitment” and “aversion” with their respective processes of subjection/subjectification that turn some prisoners into “appreciated” prisoners and others into “despised” ones. The reflections revolve around some events observed during the fieldwork: ethnographic scenes, analysis of documents and government programs in which we seek to examine how human rights are morally impregnated.